At present, only the police have the power to search pupils but the new guidelines state that "trained staff" will be able to carry out searches. One wonders exactly how you can train a unarmed, unprotected teacher to confront a student who knows they are about to get caught in possession of an illegal weapon. And what if they find something other than a knife? Surely there is significant potential for abusing these powers in search of illegal drugs? The guidelines are that there must be "reasonable" suspicion that a pupil is carrying a weapon, which gives schools a completely free reign on who they search, and why – or am I being overly cynical?

Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, was quoted as saying "I think parents will welcome the clear message that bringing a weapon into school is a criminal offence". Call me optimistic, but I hoped that they knew this already.

Giving teachers the power to search pupils for concealed weapons will do nothing other than place teachers in dangerous situations when faced with a dangerous pupil. Discuss.

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Iain Dale wrote an interesting post on the fact that Greenpeace didn't really want to debate dissenting voices in the Climate Change debate.

In April Roger Helmer held a Counter Consensual Climate Change Conference in Brussels.

Roger has a new blog which can be found here, and podcasts of the whole conference will be available over the coming week.

According to the press release issued after the Conference:-

At a packed Conference in the European Parliament in Brussels yesterday, a heavy-weight panel of scientists, economists and politicians challenged the current global warming consensus and questioned both the dubious science and the deeply damaging economics of proposed policy measures.

It appears as though the debate about Grammar schools will run and run. Iain Dale has the following story which I suspect will stoke up the flames between both sides of the argument.

Apparently the party will not support NEW Grammar schools even if local people want them. Where this leaves the commitment to localism. George Osborne used the line "We don't believe in schools choosing pupils. We believe in pupils choosing schools."

This whole issue is not being handled very well at all.

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